Sisters serve as confidants, sources of support and mentors during intimate conversations

Older sisters could aid prevention efforts aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviors among teen girls

2013-10-15

(Press-News.org) COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Adolescence can be an impressionable time for girls as they begin forming ideas about dating and sexuality. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that sisters often take on key roles of confidants, sources of support and mentors during conversations about romantic relationships. Sisters may be helpful in health education efforts to promote safe-sex practices and healthy romantic relationships.

"Our findings indicate that sisters play important roles as adolescent girls form ideas about romantic relationships and sexuality," said Sarah Killoren, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at MU and the study's lead author. "Sisters are important communication partners when it comes to these sensitive topics."

Killoren says that older sisters should be included in family-oriented programs designed to help teens make better choices, such as abstaining from intercourse, practicing safe sex or developing healthy romantic relationships.

Killoren found sisters most frequently played the role of confidant. Sisters displayed this role by giving information about themselves and by asking for more information about their sisters' lives. The disclosures made during their conversations revealed levels of intimacy between sisters, Killoren said. The second role, sources of support, was displayed when sisters encouraged their siblings' ideas about dating and sexuality. The mentor role was displayed when sisters served as role models for one another, most frequently by giving advice.

"Given their age, older sisters were more likely to have advice to share and have romantic relationships and sexual experiences from which their younger sisters can learn," Killoren said.

Younger sisters commonly reported learning from older sisters' experiences, especially their older sisters' negative dating and sexual experiences, Killoren said.

"Younger sisters frequently commented on their older sisters' negative experiences, such as teen pregnancy and abusive relationships, and made decisions to be different," Killoren said. "Learning only from negative experiences could occur because younger sisters only consciously identify the experiences of their sisters that they do not want to repeat."

Sisters share similar views on dating and sex, which is partly because they have grown up in the same home, Killoren said.

###

The article, "Sibling Conversations about Dating and Sexuality: Sisters as Confidants, Sources of Support, and Mentors," will be published in Family Relations. The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is part of the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Creating matter that never existed before: American Chemical Society Prized Science video

2013-10-15

Imagine creating something completely new — something improbable and provocative that has never existed on Earth before. This kind of unconventional science that defies long-standing assumptions in chemistry is the topic of the latest episode of a popular video series from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. The videos are available at http://www.acs.org/PrizedScience and on DVD. Titled Prized Science: Chemical Detectives: Preparing New Matter in the Universe, the third episode of the 2013 series features the research of Gregory ...

How do consumers create markets? The case of the minimoto

2013-10-15

Consumers have the power to do more than just respond to products that companies put on the market; they can actually change and develop new markets, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Firm-centric models of market development view consumers as relatively passive, downstream actors, whose agency and ability to affect a market are limited to decision making in a realm of choices controlled by marketing institutions," write authors Diane M. Martin and John W. Schouten (both Aalto University). "Recently consumer culture scholars have explored ...

When time has a will of its own, powerless consumers don't have the will to wait

2013-10-15

When consumers assign human characteristics to time, it makes it more difficult to wait for things (especially for people who don't feel powerful), according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Consumers often choose between a readily available product and a version of the product that is superior, but requires a wait time. (Should I buy an iPad now or wait for the newer version?) If wait time is perceived to have human mental states such as a will and intentions, consumers may show less patience," write authors Frank May and Ashwani Monga (both University ...

Size matters in the giant magnetoresistance effect in semiconductors

2013-10-15

In a paper appearing in Nature's Scientific Reports, Dr. Ramesh Mani, professor of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University, reports that a giant magnetoresistance effect depends on the physical size of the device in the GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor system. Giant magnetoresistance indicates a large change in the electrical resistance with the application of a small magnetic field. This effect can be used to detect the presence of small magnetic fields. Magnetic sensors based on this concept are used to read out information stored in magnetic particles on rotating ...

Johns Hopkins-led study shows increased life expectancy among family caregivers

2013-10-15

Contradicting long-standing conventional wisdom, results of a Johns Hopkins-led analysis of data previously gathered on more than 3,000 family caregivers suggests that those who assist a chronically ill or disabled family member enjoy an 18 percent survival advantage compared to statistically matched non-caregivers. In a report, published in the current online version of the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that providing care for a chronically ill or disabled family member not only fails to increase health risk, but also is associated with a nine-month ...

2013 Ocean Health Index shows food provision remains an area of great concern

2013-10-15

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– In the 2013 Ocean Health Index (OHI) –– an annual assessment of ocean health lead by Ben Halpern, a research associate at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management –– scientists point to food provision as the factor that continues to require serious attention. The OHI defines a healthy ocean as one that sustainably delivers a range of benefits to people now and in the future based on 10 diverse public goals. The 2013 score of 65 out ...

To live and learn: Making memories has to be a speedy business

2013-10-15

This news release is available in French. The brain is plastic - adapting to the hundreds of experiences in our daily lives by reorganizing pathways and making new connections between nerve cells. This plasticity requires that memories of new information and experiences are formed fast. So fast that the body has a special mechanism, unique to nerve cells, that enables memories to be made rapidly. In a new study from The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, The Neuro, McGill University with colleagues at the Université de Montréal, researchers have discovered ...

Embargoed news from Oct. 15, 2013 Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet

2013-10-15

1. President Taft's letters to his physician show emerging modern approach to treating obesity Correspondence between President William H. Taft, one of the first public figures in U.S. history to be defined popularly in terms of his obesity, and his physician, Nathaniel E. Yorke-Davies, provide a rare glimpse into the history of the obesity experience in the United States. At 314 pounds, Taft wrote to English diet expert Yorke-Davies because he thought weight loss could alleviate uncomfortable symptoms (heartburn, indigestion, fatigue, and restless sleep) and help him ...

Hospital report cards for hospital-acquired bedsores: How good are the grades?

2013-10-15

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The data Medicare uses to publicly report hospital rates of patients developing pressure ulcers (or bedsores) is not an accurate source for comparing hospitals on how well they prevent the condition, says a new University of Michigan study. Bedsores are skin wounds often caused by pressure against the skin when staying in one position for too long. They are among many common hospital-acquired conditions Medicare's Hospital Compare website reports in an effort to help consumers compare the quality of their care at different hospitals. Hospital bedsore ...

Young apes manage emotions like humans

2013-10-15

Researchers studying young bonobos in an African sanctuary have discovered striking similarities between the emotional development of the bonobos and that of children, suggesting these great apes regulate their emotions in a human-like way. This is important to human evolutionary history because it shows the socio-emotional framework commonly applied to children works equally well for apes. Using this framework, researchers can test predictions of great ape behavior and, as in the case of this study, confirm humans and apes share many aspects of emotional functioning. Zanna ...